“The idea was having those moments to breathe between songs” – An Interview with Eliza & The Delusionals
Australia’s Eliza & The Delusionals are currently touring the US to promote their stunning sophomore album Make It Feel Like The Garden. Supporting The Front Bottoms, they will be in Chicago and Louisville this week and you can get tickets here.
Released in July on Cooking Vinyl Australia (order here), Make It Feel Like The Garden features a collection of songs that blend catchy hooks, driving rhythms, and introspective lyricism. The album follows the success of acclaimed singles “Falling For You,” “Make It Feel Like The Garden,” and “Somebody,” which have garnered attention for their evocative melodies and emotive storytelling. The band also released a new video for their single “Lately” featuring vocals from Brian Aubert (Silversun Pickups) and Butch Vig (Garbage), which were recorded and produced at Butch’s home in Los Angeles.
Eliza & The Delusionals are made up of Eliza Klatt (vocals), Kurt Skuse (guitar), and Ruby Lee (bass guitar) and are from Queensland, Australia. Formed in 2016, they released their acclaimed debut album Now and Then in 2022. Conceptualized during their North American tour in 2022, follow-up Make it Feel Like The Garden was born from guitarist Kurt’s impromptu acoustic guitar sessions and voice memos. The creative journey continued in their DIY studio in Napa, California, and culminated with recording sessions with acclaimed producer Oscar Dawson (Holy Holy, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, CLEWS, Amy Shark) in Rye, Victoria.
We were lucky enough to have a chat with Eliza as she was in between shows to talk about how she is recovering from a recent injury and the current issues facing bands as they tour.
Hi Eliza! How’s everything going right now?
Hello! We’ve been well, doing a lot of driving around the US whilst we’re on tour. We’re tired, but we’re having the best time.
What classic album cover art is your current mood?
I had to really think about this. I feel Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band feels right because there’s a lot going on right now and it’s very chaotic hahaha
You’ve just started a US tour supporting The Front Bottoms – how’s it going so far?
The shows have been amazing. The Front Bottoms are some of the nicest people we’ve met, we’ve had so much fun with them and are very grateful to share the stage with them. Their fanbase are so kind as well, we’ve enjoyed meeting everyone at the merch desk after the show and I love how early everyone turns up for the support band.
More importantly, how is your hand standing up to playing gigs again? It sounded like it was a really nasty injury! (Link)
It’s actually been healing up a lot faster than expected. The surgeons were even impressed, I was really determined to get it into shape for playing ahead of the US tour. It’s still quite swollen and sore, and I’ve had to re-learn a few things in my style of playing, but I’m really glad it’s healed as quickly as it has.
What is the one thing you had to bring with you from home for the tour that you could not live without?
Besides all of our musical things, I always pack my Nintendo Switch. It’s an essential for flights, long road trips or when you’re finding it hard to get to sleep at night.
There are a lot of bands that have recently had to cancel tours due to the increased costs they are seeing. How are you finding things, especially having had to travel so far to get here?
Honestly, it’s really tough. And it’s a real shame, because a lot of opportunities are being lost in Australia with some of our biggest festivals calling it quits, you kind of have no choice but to branch out to other countries. I wish it was a little bit more accessible for smaller bands. There’s so much to do in the US and places to branch out to. The opportunity for us to come to the US this time was honestly too good to miss out on, but I can tell you the process was long, stressful and expensive.
If you could only listen to one record, what would it be?
It’s a big question, but for me personally my all time favourite comfort record is After Laughter by Paramore.
We’ve been loving your new album “Make It Feel Like The Garden.” How did you approach the writing and recording after the success of “Now and Then”? Was there any fear of second album syndrome?
Thank you so much! I think because we felt really strongly about the song we had written for ‘MIFLTG’ we didn’t actually get the second album syndrome until after we started releasing songs. I feel like it was that point where I started thinking “Wow, I actually hope people like these songs as much as we do”. I don’t think we thought about it until that point. I think having our producer Oscar Dawson on board had a really big impact on how the songs turned out and how we varied the writing process. It felt very organic and we tried not to overthink what we were doing – we wanted to just let the songs be what felt right in the studio.
Did you always intend to intersperse the album with interludes or was that something that came as you were pulling the record together?
The interludes were all Kurt. We both loved full albums that have interludes and almost help take you on the journey of the story an artist is trying to tell. Everyone is so caught up in 30 seconds of a song and singles, when we really wanted to focus on creating an entire album that tells the story, and the idea was having those moments to breathe between songs or emotionally shift you whilst listening.
Which song from the new album do you most enjoy playing live?
Last night in Pittsburgh we played our favourite song from the record live for the first time. It’s called ‘Madison’, I think it’s going to be hard to not put it in the set every night now.
What would go on your signature pizza and what would it be called?
Honestly, it would be cheese and sauce. But like really good cheese and sauce with an amazing sourdough base. You can’t go wrong with that… I feel like I’d call it “Just cheese because you literally don’t need anything else to be happy”.
What do you have planned for 2025?
We’ll be finally doing our Australian album tour after postponing it because of my surgery, and after that hopefully coming back to the US to visit more places!
You can find out more about Eliza & The Delusionals and get all the latest news by following them on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. You can get tickets for their 2025 Australian Tour Dates here.
Feature Image Credit – Nick Maguire
